Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-04-07

to be piled on top of one another. hard
ly four per cent. can boast of living in
houses of their own. 1t will hardly do
to say that only four per cent. of this
population are sober, industrious. thrift
ty and do not desire homes of their
own. Most of the homeless and land
less people are 81 from nlisdojng and
non-doing of their own, this is true.
They have failed to give that attention
to social questions that they ought to
haye done, and have voted against
right and humanity, or land would
stead of being a subject of cold blooded
specul ton as it now is. The govern
ment piece of the land was only to COW
er costs of survey &c. The government
let every man seize land according to
his pile. The surveyor had hardly
blazed his witness trees or set his stakes
before spectators of that devil-take-
the-hindmost class, who do so much
SScA IVA anu ~ lIlllS iOl any
body else, culled out the best of it, in
tens o: thousands of acres, not because
they wanted to work but because they
wanted to prevent others from working
and so drive them into necessities that
they the spectators could take advan-
tage of; and the people have been fool
ish enouIh to let the government back
these bloodhounds in human forms
just as they let it back the blacklist
form PIRACY for twenty years after the
adoption of the constitution. The peO-
pie are now suffering for their lack of
intelligence and for their folly.
But *" goes on to suggest that il
we do what neither Henry George nor
any sensible man proposes to do, we
cannot compensate those who have
profited by our doing wrong at the cost
of those who have suffered by the
wrong. Why George scouts the idea
of compensation. Nobody proposes to
confiscate single square inch Of land
or 10 dispossess solitary individual OF
illS IaiId liz " lIOIS pt'k'o-
sition is to change the system of taxa
ton SO as to prevent men from acquir-
ing land for purposes contrary to good
public policy, and shall we compensate
men because we take from them the
power to wrong their feIlowmen?
If Mr.. Georges theory were III full
practice men would deed and devise
land just as they do to-day; but they
would not buy it on speculation; aud
they would put their capital into as
much Improvement but as little land
as possible.
But it would throw such an enor-
nous burden upon land in the way of
taxation. says IN" Indeed? Well
where do taxes come from now? And
where does rent come from?
The people OF the United States pay
tional debt amounts To, but you would
have to multiply the national debt by
"a pretty high figure to get at the rent
they pay annually. 1t has all to come
out of land; labor and capital have to
bring it out; and then they quarrel over
what is left after rent and taxes are
paid. Poor fools! Now suppose we
were to pay 10 taxes at all and turn
rent into the public treasury, it would
give US a revenue many times greater
than We now get,and yet greatly light
en- the task and increase the wages of
labor and capital. 1t would bejust, be-
cause rent comes out of value that
society and not land owners produce;
So if we "render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesars we must take rent
for public not for private use.
"Government cannot tax one class |
for the benefit of another" so it cannot |
tax labor for the benefit of n class that,
small to begin with, grows smaller un-
till revolution Overthrows the State as
fordidere Italian. A tax
upon land values naturally and equit-
ably distributes itself. 1t is beyond
the intelligence and power of man to
distribute taxation equitabIy in any
0!her way. lie who attempts 1t at
tempts socialistic and an impossible
task, as foolish as land limitation.
TX" is a socialist, not Henry George;
and [ hope, after he has read and stud
ed social problems while, he will
have intelligence enough to see his
mistake and maniiness enough to ac-
FARMER.
Murray Ills, March p, 1887.
Henry Genroe as He Lectures.